Link: http://twitter.com/myahre

From odwyers.com, Dec. 29, 2009.

PRSA CRITIC BLASTED ON TWITTER

Arthur Yann, VP-PR of the PR Society, replied sharply to member R.D. Waters when Waters posted on Dec. 22, “Wow, the Society is taking voting away from minorities/multicultural members…sounds just like the 1800s!”

Replied Yann: “Wow…sounds like the most irresponsible, ignorant comment I’ve heard today. Congrats!”

Waters, assistant communications professor at North Carolina State University, then replied: “It’ll be interesting to see how the PR diversity scholars side on this, not enough $ = no vote, not a decision I’d want on my hands.”

Yann replied: “Guess it depends on whether they’re interested hearing the facts or perpetuating half truths.”

As I said early on, I don’t want to take sides in this one until I know the facts. I know and respect both of the folks in this Twitter exchange. But as a PRSA member in good standing, seems to me that Professor Waters deserves better treatment.

Can we fix it? We’re trying. More than a decade ago, our journalism school created a new freshman-level writing class that is 50% remedial (though we aren’t allowed to use that word, since the state won’t subsidize remedial courses at the college level). We spend a lot of time in this class diagramming sentences and teaching basic lessons such as subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement.

Should this be necessary at the college level? No. But it would be negligent for us to ignore the problem. Funny, but I passed my J-School writing test with a 93% during my sophomore year. Even though my last formal grammar lesson had been in the 8th grade, I understood the language because 1) I read good writing and 2) I was required to write a lot.

But as you point out, if students aren’t motivated to do these things, it’s tough to expect miracles at the college level. My solution to the unmotivated is this simple question: “So, kid. Have you considered another major?”

Yes, the high schools sending these kids on unprepared are terribly at fault, but there’s also an element of personal responsibility on the part of both the students and their parents. If a student’s too lazy to learn, no amount of outstanding teaching can cure that. If a student’s parents are too shiftless to encourage or even demand better performance, no teacher or university on earth can effect some miraculous change.

Anyone who’s ever stood in front of a class knows that.

But let’s remember something else: These students got into college because their high schools said they were prepared. And by the time they get to my classes, most will have passed two semesters of college English. At Kent State, a student won’t earn a PR degree without demonstrating solid writing skills. But those who can’t often earn degrees in other communication-related majors. And that’s not just a Kent State thing.

Standards, at least for writing, ain’t what they used to be. In too many state universities these days, the objective is to keep butt$ in $eat$. (I guess that isn’t very subtle, is it?)

Happy holidays to you and yours, Bill. And thanks for being a loyal visitor and contributor to ToughSledding. As for the tree stand, it’s almost always cold up there, but it’s never boring. Mother Nature always offers a little excitement.

Wonderful post. I don’t envy you the job of teaching today’s iPhone-addicted, texting, Twittering, status-updating generation how to string the proper words together.

But I’m glad someone is up there on that wall, trying to do it. And I’m glad that someone is you.

Have a great Christmas, now that (one would hope, on Christmas Eve) all the papers are graded.

Steve C.

Did you cover what every editor has to explain to – in my day they were called “cub reporters”?

It’s “more than” not “over” (or under). Over is a direction, or the end of a show.